ThirstyFish

New York is still a meeting place for numerous "cultures". The text of this post below, is unrelated to the gentleman in the photo.

It used to be that our foundational worldview was decided by our parents, and the general culture determined how much we were allowed to stray from it. Now we are seeing something else. From our parents, we only get our identity, and the general culture determines our assumptions about the world. Thanks to television and the Internet, those assumptions are homogenizing across the world. We carry different identities, but more or less have very similar worldviews. Irritatingly, people hold similar values, have similar ambitions, approach problems in similar ways. This trend towards monoculture, in a way, is a trend towards the end of culture.

Individualism, materialism, self-importance, vanity and hedonism transcend identity. It does not matter whether we identify as a Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Wiccan or Atheist if we are just materialist hedonists.